So You Want A Drone...

[Hackentosher]

Hello, recently I've seen quite a lot of posts regarding drones and what kind one should buy and what can I get for X monetary value. So, this guide will attempt to answer some questions about what kind to buy or build, some of the terminology, and to point you in the right direction for your multirotored future. 

 

If you don't have any experience flying 4ch helicopters or drones, buy one on amazon BEFORE you drop $500< on an expensive drone setup. If you already have experience and know how all the controls work, carry on  This is a great option, and for the love of god don't get one of these. The latter of those are crap. They're cheaply made, the camera solutions are awful and when you crash (when, not if. Everyone crashes) there are no replacement parts for them. The Hubsan is a much better option, it's smaller, there are some replacement parts even in hobby shops and most importantly, it's so light that it wont really break in a crash* However, I'm sure where there's a will, there's a way to break these things.

 

Before we get started, MAKE SURE YOU RESEARCH YOUR LOCAL LAWS FOR FLYING RADIO CONTROLLED AIRCRAFT. If you do not follow the rules created and enforced by your government, you could face fines and or jail time. So take the time instead of doing time.

 

Okay, the first decision you have to make is whether you want to enter the fast paced, exciting world of FPV racing/freestyle/mini quads, or the calmer, more professional, aerial photography and videography field, commonly known as AP for Aerial Photography. You can do very impressive things with both, examples of which are in those two videos. I chose the former, but it's all up to you.

 

Build Or Buy:

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Well, there are pros and cons to each. Buying a prebuilt quad can be very effective for AP as there are some very good values on the prebuilt side (I’m looking at you, phantom 3 standard), but building your multirotor is like building your computer. You get to make it your own, customize it to fit your needs. You need to carry around a Canon 5D Mk III with a gimbal? Might be best to build. You need a convenient and seamless solution for capturing pictures and or video from the sky? Well, DJI and other companies have some good options for you. On the build side of things, there are fewer options. There are a couple frames out there that I know of and are good (Immersion Xugon, TBS whatever-the-hell, various DJI frames and larger DJI frames). These frames are designed for carrying heavy gimbals and cameras ranging from Go-Pros to a $4k DSLR.

 

As for FPV quads, there are two main options for pre-builts, the Vortex 250 from ImmersionRC, and the Vendetta from Team Black Sheep. These are good, both are reviewed here. However, these do not include goggles or a radio system, about $400 at minimum if you don't already have them.

However building an FPV quad has many more options. Nearly limitless, actually, with more and more parts coming out every day. It gives you more options that can suit your needs and your flying style. An X frame for racing, or a Warp Quad style FPV frame for more freestyle type stuff. I highly recommend that you build if you want an FPV acro experience.

FPV Mini Quads:

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Well, there are pros and cons to each. Buying a prebuilt quad can be very effective for AP as there are some very good values on the prebuilt side (I’m looking at you, phantom 3 standard), but building your multirotor is like building your computer. You get to make it your own, customize it to fit your needs. You need to carry around a Canon 5D Mk III with a gimbal? Might be best to build. You need a convenient and seamless solution for capturing pictures and or video from the sky? Well, DJI and other companies have some good options for you. On the build side of things, there are fewer options. There are a couple frames out there that I know of and are good (Immersion Xugon, TBS whatever-the-hell, various DJI frames). These frames are designed for carrying big heavy gimbals and cameras ranging from Go-Pros to a $4k DSLR.

 

As for FPV quads, there are two main options for pre-builts, the Vortex 250 from ImmersionRC, and the Vendetta from Team Black Sheep. These are good, both are reviewed here. However, these do not include goggles or a radio system, about $400 at minimum if you don't already have them.

However building an FPV quad has many more options. Nearly limitless, actually, with more and more parts coming out every day. It gives you more options that can suit your needs and your flying style. An X frame for racing, or a Warp Quad style FPV frame for more freestyle type stuff. Xhover has been making some very good products as of late, the element 5" and mxp 200B have become very popular because of their high quality carbon and exquisite design. I highly recommend that you build if you want an FPV acro experience.

Aerial Photography/Videography:

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You’ve seen the videos of the guy with his Inspire 1 looking over some majestic scene, you want to do that too! Well, in this case, it might be best to buy an off the shelf quad. DJI makes some very high quality products. They’re kinda like the Apple of drones, but with less bull shit and poor hardware choices. As of writing this, the DJI Phantom 3 is very inexpensive at about $500 for the standard edition which features a 1080p camera on a gimbal, as well as all the GPS bells and whistles of the higher end models. If you can find the money in between the couch cushions, the Phantom 3 advanced or even the Phantom 4 are very good options, the 4 featuring some idiot proof safety features such as a mode that won’t let you crash into anything in front of you. Not bad, but still expensive as hell. Better yet is the Inspire 1 for legit cinematography quality shots. You don't buy this one unless you literally burn half your paychecks, but perhaps a used one might be a good option.

 

With the growing popularity of drones and aerial photography and videography, drones are becoming much more popular in commercial and film markets because they're a hell of a lot cheaper than renting a helicopter with a camera man. It is possible to fly commercially with your Phantom or custom built AP multirotor, I know realestate agents are using aerial footage for promotions and advertisements of their listings, and I'm sure you could find some budget films that need airborn shots. But it's not as simple as your client handing you a pay check in return for a flash drive with all the glorious airborn footage you took. You usually need a commercial license from your nation's FAA equivalent. If you live in the United States, you're in luck. The FAA (as of writing this) recently relaxed their rules on commercial UAS operations. You no longer need a full blown pilot's license, but you still need to take a course and pass a test at an FAA approved location. If you are filming recreationally, you do not need to do any of this, it's only if you get paid for it. 

Parts:

this is where things get a little complicated. There are so many things to buy, and certain parts are more suited to different applications than others. FPV and AP drones use a lot of the same types of components, but in different sizes and are built for different applications.

 

Frames:

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Good frames are made almost entirely out of carbon fiber. Why? Because it's strong as hell and weighs very little. If the frame you're looking at is made of plastic, find a new frame. Frames are sized by the distance (in mm) from one motor, to the other all the way across the machine. Most FPV drones are 250mm and smaller, while AP drones are often 400 and larger.

 

      I mentioned above that the popular frames for AP drones are made by ImmersionRC, TBS, and DJI. All of these are designed to carry gimbals from small enough for a gopro, all the way to one of these bad boys. If your AP rig is carrying more than a gopro, it might be beneficial or even required to step up to a hex or even octocopter for more power and stability with larger payloads.

 

      For FPV, these little frames are designed to be light and fast. For racing, a lot of people prefer a true X, where there's no length to the frame, just a larger hub in the middle for all your electronics, like this one. The advantages of these frames is that they are more aerodynamic. It may not look like it, because it kinda looks like the leaning tower of Pisa when it has a battery strapped to the bottom (another downside, if you land hard bottom down, your volatile Lipo will take the entire blow potentially killing a cell, or the whole damn quad if it blows), but you have to remember that a quad most tilt way forward to fly fast, so the aerodynamic profile is no longer a leaning tower, but now it's this: X 

      Freestyle frames tend to be longer and heavier. This is great, because that extra weight allows you to carry more momentum when you're doing super flowy stuff like this. These frames are also a HELL of a lot easier to build in because they're simply bigger. This allows more room for cables and components. If you run with a racing X frame, running an S-Bus receiver (I'll explain later) and directly soldering (no connectors or pins, just soldering wires to and through pads on PCBs) all your components is a requirement. Building this way is a lot cleaner, and cuts down on all the extra wire, allowing you to fit the components you need inside a small frame. Small side note, running S-bus frees up the 5th pin on the Naze32, allowing you to control RGB LED's, which is nice. I prefer this type of frame, I use the Armattan F1-6 as it is designed a little better (in my opinion) than the Element and the Alien.

Motors:

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You must match the motor to your the size of your frame. Frames from about 120mm to 160mm use 1306 motors. 180mm Frames often use 1806, but sometimes people throw 2204s on them for more power. 200-300mm frames usually use 2204-06 motors. There are larger sizes of motors, I know of 2217, but these are more torquey motors designed for AP drones that swing around bigger props. 

KV does not equal power. KV is a rating that can be a little confusing. What it means is how fast the motor will be spinning (in RPM) with no resistance at 1 volt. Smaller motors tend to have much higher KV ratings. I've seen 1306 motors in excess of 4000kv. The motors on my quad are 2300. Just because a 1306 motor can spin at 100,000 RPM when given a 6s battery, doesn't mean it'll be the right motor for a big AP quad.

 

Motor Sizing and Naming:

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The numbers that I mentioned above when referring to motors is referring to the size of the stator, or the collection of coils in the middle of the motor. The first number (22, 18, 13) is the diameter in mm, and the last number (04, 05, 06) is the thickness of the stator in mm. For FPV quads, 2204 motors are the most popular, but 2205s (like the increasingly infamous Emax red bottoms) are gaining popularity as they can provide more power for about the same size and weight. Motors that have smaller stators are really good at driving small props really quickly, providing a punchy flight style for small drones. 2204-6 are better for larger (180-280 sized frames) as they use larger, 5" or even 6" props that require more torque to swing. Since these props are larger, they do not need to spin as fast to produce enough thrust.

 

ESCs:

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ESCs are the second most important component on your multirotor. They are the Electronic Speed Controllers that take the DC current from your battery and turn it into a sweet 3 phase AC current that controls the motor. It also takes an input from the flight controller to adjust the motor's speed for the required maneuver or adjustment. Most miniquads can get away with a 20 amp ESC that bursts up to 30 amps, but as more power hungry motors (2205's mostly) become increasingly popular, it would be wise to go with a 30 amp. For AP aircraft, you'll have to do some research on how much current each motor will pull with whatever size prop you plan to use.

 

There are three main firmwares for ESCs: SimonK(don't use this one), BLHeli(use this one), and the KISS firmware(only runs on KISS ESCs, only run these bad boys if you rich af or you like spending more on ESCs than motors). I personally use DYS 20 amp ESCs with BLHeli, but the FVT little bee is very popular and very good. I plan on switching to little bees as soon as one of my current ESCs goes out.

Props:

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You will want to stock up on these. Especially if you don’t get the (my personal preferred prop, not the best for every situation, but I like them) DAL “indestructible” props. Believe it or not, there are advantages of having the prop break. Hell, I’ve killed a motor because slamming spinning props that won’t break without one hell of a fight into concrete can bend the motor shafts. I’ve found that if you’re flying over something soft, like grass, stronger, DAL, props can be a good idea as you won’t break another $1 prop every time you touch the ground wrong. But if you don’t want to replace your motors all the time and you’re flying over concrete it’s probably a good idea to get breakable props such as Hq or Gemfan to save your motors.

 

Prop Sizing and Blade Count:

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There is too much information to cover here, I’ll direct you to some very well put together youtube videos to explain it.

 

 

 

 

Flight Controller:

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This is a very important component. It interprets inputs from the radio transmitter and translates that into how fast each motor needs to spin for the required maneuver as well as handling all of the stabilization. The most popular is the Naze32 for its easy setup and use, but there are higher end flight controllers such as the Flyduino KISS, but unless you have a small loan of a million dollars to spend on your first quad, I suggest you don’t use a KISS. Just about any flight controller can be used for either FPV or AP drones, but you have to keep in mind how many motors are supported by each controller. The Naze 32 supports up to 6 motors, and I believe it's the same for the KISS controller. If you need more than six, consider a different controller.

 

By default, a flight controller doesn't have any firmware loaded or configured. Look up guides for how to configure your specific flight controller. Flitetest made a great video on how to configure the Naze 32 rev6, but look it up if you have a different board.

 

Important note about flight modes:

There are three flight modes available to you.

• Angle: This mode does not let you exceed a certain angle on any axis, automatically brings the drone back to level when you release the stick. I only recommend this for ap quads.
• Horizon: similar to angle, this brings the multirotor back to level when you let go of the stick, but doesn't have an angle restriction. Please never use this mode, I'll explain on the next bullet.
• Attitude/acro/rate mode: this one goes by a few names, but It’s the best for flying FPV (not AP, mind you, but if you want to do acro, you start with this and you never turn it off). Acro mode is best because it has no autoleveling and no angle restrictions. But, but that sounds scary! You know what's more scary? Diving down a big tree and you get stuck in said tree because your quad tried to level out and crashed. However, it will still try to correct against outside forces in rate mode. This is where PIDs come in, as these control how the drone reacts to exterior forces. By default, if you don't have any other modes enabled, you are in acro. For the love of all things Holy, if you want to learn to fly like Mr. Steele, start learning in this mode because you will be too scared of leaving horizon when your skills reach a certain threshold.

 

Radio System:

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This can be as simple as the Flysky Fs-i6 like I have, or all the way up to the ridiculous DX20. This is what you use to actually control the aircraft. I’m assuming you know what all the sticks do, so I won’t waste time on that. Keep in mind that most miniquad pilots use the Frsky Taranis because of its support for s-bus receivers, which offer far fewer wires than ppm (one wire per channel from the receiver to the flight controller). Most people like to use the Frsky X4R for its sbus support and replaceable antennas, making it better and cheaper in the long run.

What is S-Bus? S-Bus is a control protocol developed by Frsky that allows the receiver to communicate with the flight controller over three wires. One for power, ground, and signal. You can only use these receivers if you are using an Frsky transmitter or a transmitter that uses an Frksy module that supports the specific receiver you wish to use. So, you could go with a cheap radio like a Turnigy 9XR Pro, add the Frsky XJT module to the back of the transmitter and still connect to an Frsky receiver.

Camera:

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Now assuming you don’t just want a small quad for flying line of sight, you want an FPV image of some sort. And for that, you need a camera. If you’re serious about flying, you have one small potato cam that offers next to no latency, then an HD action cam to capture your flight in glorious non-potato quality. The industry standard for fpv cameras is the hs1177, but the run cam swift is another good option. Make sure you get a CCD camera (rcmodelreviews made a great video as to why you want CCD, skip to about 4:50) and make sure it fits in your frame. Nothing sucks more than having an awesome quad, but you can't fly FPV because the camera you have doesn't fit in your frame.

 

A lot of people also run Go-Pros, or other action cameras on their multirotors for different reasons. Flying FPV is kinda like skateboarding, you want to record that awesome trick you just did because it was badass. This is pretty easy as instead of having your buddy roll behind you with a big clunky video camera, you can just strap a Go-Pro to the top of your quad. Just don't forget to start the recording. AP drones often also use Go-Pros or other high end cameras, and it is recommended to hook one of these up to a video transmitter so you can see what your camera is pointed at.

Video Transmitter:

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Now you have your camera, but you also need a way to get the video feed from it back to you. That’s what these buggers do. They’re a lot simpler than you might think. They have an antenna, a ground and power in that takes your battery’s voltage, and usually a 5v out, video in, and ground out for the camera. Most people that have enough room on their quads use an ImmersionRC transmitter because of its native compatibility with Fatshark goggles. It is important to note that you should never plug in your VTX to power if you do not have an antenna installed. If you accidentally do it for, like, a second, it will probably be okay (unless you have a 600mw vtx), but even a short amount of time without an antenna will burn out the transmitter and no one likes replacing parts if they don’t have to. It’s also important to note that it’s technically illegal to run most video transmitters without a HAM license from your country’s radio transmission/communication agency. Fortunately, Fatshark makes a video transmitter that is certified by the FCC and another that is certified by the CE for all you Europeans. That being said (at least in America) any cop that sees you flying your kick ass quad in the park is going to be more concerned as to whether or not your aircraft is registered then if you have a HAM license to operate your VTX system legally.

Antennae/Video Receivers/Display Devices:

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When flying FPV, the most common and most immersive solution is a pair of FPV goggles. The most popular of which being the Fatshark Goggles, but others are also good. Some people like to use a monitor with a built in or external receiver, but goggles give almost a movie theater like experience. 

 

If you’re using a more unconventional setup using, say, a TV or goggles that don’t include a video receiver, you will need one to pick up the signal. ImmersionRC makes a few, some even including diversity antenna support. Personally, I've really been liking Ready Made RC's FPV products, specifically their Cricket V2 Video transmitters. If their Mantis receiver is anything like the Cricket, you won't be disappointed.

 

Often times, a video transmitter will include an antenna within the package. It’s probably crap. The standalone ImmersionRC and Cricket transmitters include a linearly polarized antenna (it’s the same, black stick with articulating joint, that plugs into your wifi card) that you should never use unless you break your nicer circularly polarized antenna. Speaking of, you should most certainly get circularly polarized antennas for both your VTX and VRX. The advantage of these is they spread the signal more evenly and allow for better connections with fewer dead zones. They also work when your multirotor is in orientations other than level. It’s also important to make sure you have the same type of circularly polarized antenna, right hand or left hand, or you will receive less performance than if you just got matching antennas. Now, you don’t have to get the exact same model of antennas for your VTX and VRX, you don’t need two immersion antennas, but as long as they share the same type of polarization, you should be fine. Also watch out what kind of sma connector all your FPV components use. If you have an rp-sma component, you need an rp-sma antenna to match, or an adapter.

Power Distribution Board

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This is a very important component that often sits just underneath your flight controller. This guy takes your raw battery power, and splits it up to all your ESCs. Fancy ones like the Matek Powerhub also have a 5v and 12v regulator for powering your flight controller and FPV system. Neat. Even fancier ones have a built in OSD, or on screen display. These are supper handy as they keep track of important things like your battery voltage. You don't want to drain your batteries much further than 3.5v per cell or you can damage them over time. Why? because:

On 6/30/2016 at 2:07 PM, Hackentosher said:

LiPo's are made of witch craft and lithium. Isn't that all we need to know?

 

Important note about soldering PDBs: I can't remember if I already mentioned this, but u need to turn up your iron's temperature when soldering up a PDB because the traces are heavy duty. They're meant to take current upwards of 100A , so you need to flood them with heat to bring them to soldering temperature. I usually turn my iron up to about 450c when soldering the PDB.

 

Gimbals and Video Stabilization:

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Now this is far more important on AP drones, but some stabilization is relevant for FPV quads. A gimbal is a series of motors attached to a camera mount that adjusts the orientation of the camera to cancel out movement of the aircraft to make a stable, usable shot in a film. These guys can be small enough for a gopro, or big enough for a professional video camera or DSLR. FPV quads sometimes have some stabilization to cancel out the vibrations in the form of little rubber bobbins, but this is only for your HD camera and it usually isn't necessary. Your FPV potato cam doesn't need any stabilization.

Batteries:

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The most common battery for drones right now are Lipo, or lithium polymer batteries. These are most common because they are the most power dense, and they have the highest discharge current of just about any other battery. They have three specifications you have to worry about. Capacity, C rating, and cell count. The capacity is a number in Mah (milliamp hours) that can give you a rough idea of how long your flight times will be. The other is the C rating. This number tells you what the maximum (safe) current draw of the battery is. You take the C rating and multiply it by the number of amp hours the battery contains to get the maximum current you can pull from the battery. Most FPV quad motors pull around 30 amps per motor, but I'm not sure how much the average AP motor pulls. Look it up. Lastly, cell count is exactly what it sounds like: how many cells are in the battery. The common FPV drone uses a 4 cell or 4s battery, providing 16.8 volts when fully charged. But wait! Online, it says this battery is only 14.8v!!! Yes, you're right, but that's the stable, storage voltage of a Lipo, about 75% charged. When fully balance charged, a Lipo should be at 4.2 volts per cell, equating to 16.8 on a 4s pack. AP drones tend to use higher cell counts to get those lower KV motors up to speed and increase efficiency, but 4s is more than enough for an FPV quad.

 

Well, I think I’ve covered all the parts. Some parts have their own little quirks, like KISS 18A v1 ESCs spontaneously combusting, cheap DYS motors using 4mm prop shafts opposed to the standard 5mm. If you’re not sure, YouTube has a wealth of knowledge about just about every part you could possibly want to put in your Drone. If not, PM me, I might be able to answer your question, or point you in the right direction.

 

Other stuff:

PIDs:

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Now, these seem like mystical numbers that make your quad fly better, and in a sense, this is correct. However, they're not magic, just confusing as hell. First, what it stands for.

• P: potential

• I: integral

• D: derivative

Now, these are values within the flight controller firmware that controls how your quad reacts to outside forces and the aftermath of a maneuver. These can be adjusted per axis depending on what your aircraft does in the air. Now as I mentioned, PIDs are very confusing and I don't understand them 100% either, but I'll do my best to describe them and how to tune your multirotor. Note: Each one of these values are adjusted for each axis. The default PIDs will probably okay for slow flying, but as you get more skilled and go faster, you will need to adjust these to make your quad fly better.

• Potential: Potential essentially tries to correct errors before any input has been given. If this is too high, the quad will jitter all over the place without you doing anything. If it's too low, the quad can be pushed around a bit or will jitter after an input.

• Integral: Integral handles how your quad while it is changing orientation or when it's managing wind.

• Derivative: This last value is how the quad reacts and recovers from a hard maneuver on a specific axis. So say you do a roll, and when you release the stick, there is a noticeable jitter before it figures itself out. This is an indication of not enough derivative. Your derivative is at the correct value when you can release the stick after a hard maneuver and the quad stops the maneuver with no fuss, it just sticks in the orientation you left it, no jittering, no crap.

 

Now I probably didn't do the best job explaining all this, so use these videos as a guide. I've noticed that they all kinda preach a different message, but the more you learn the better your understanding of the concept can be.

 

 

 

•  

 

Rates:

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This one is simple, it's how sensitive the quad is to stick input. By default, the rates are set to 0 on all axes. This isn't much fun because your quad is pretty sluggish. It's fine to do some line of sight testing at these rates, but when you go FPV, I suggest bumping them all to 0.3, then increasing them as you become more comfortable. When you come across RC rate, set it to 1 and call it a day.

 

Expo:

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This one’s important. As you increase your rates to pull off flips and rolls and other things, you will notice that this is a linear relationship. The center of the stick is hella sensitive and It’s hard to do fine adjustments and precise control. This is where exponents come in. They turn the rate at which your inputs are interpreted into an exponential relationship, effectively softening the center of the stick for finer control of smaller adjustments, but still allows you to perform a quick flip at the edge of the stick. Currently with rates of 0.8, I believe I have my expo set to 0.6, but all of these values are different for every quad. You'll have to experiment on your own and figure out what's best for your quad and how you fly.

 

For assembling your quad, most frames are pretty self explanatory, but again, most frames have videos on YouTube documenting the build process on that specific frame. Similar to your glorious gaming rig, every multirotor is different and unique to the person who built it. If you bought your quad, well, you will probably have the same experience as the next guy that bought the same product. I hope I covered all the basics, if you have any more questions, hit me up in PM’s.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading all 4730 of those words! I hope you learned something and I can’t stress enough, don’t hesitate to PM me if you have any suggestions for additions to this post or more individual questions.

 

Future Topics?

What did I forget? Comment here with suggestions!

[pagani123]

this is a great guideline for buying a drone. I do some commercial photography on the side. It was a pain in the ass to register for the section 333 exemption. It will be interesting to see what the faa rules will do for the comerical side of drones

[Hackentosher]

3 minutes ago, Maybach123 said:

this is a great guideline for buying a drone. I do some commercial photography on the side. It was a pain in the ass to register for the section 333 exemption. It will be interesting to see what the faa rules will do for the comerical side of drones

Thank you! It was a google doc linked in my signature, but it was hidden. Thought it would be better posted on here.

 

How bad was it getting your 333 license? I'm not too familiar with the process as I zoned out after I realized it didn't concern me.

[anonysrom]

 

On 7/22/2016 at 11:25 AM, Hackentosher said:

Thank you! It was a google doc linked in my signature, but it was hidden. Thought it would be better posted on here.

 

How bad was it getting your 333 license? I'm not too familiar with the process as I zoned out after I realized it didn't concern me.

It's difficult, expensive and annoying, especially with Part 107 coming in August. Commercial drones are slowly becoming like any other commercial aviation rating. However, if you love flying or drones go ahead and do it, just start small (recreationally and size) and work your way up.

[Hackentosher]

2 hours ago, anonysrom said:

 

It's difficult, expensive and annoying, especially with Part 107 coming in August. Commercial drones are slowly becoming like any other commercial aviation rating. However, if you love flying or drones go ahead and do it, just start small (recreationally and size) and work your way up.

No, they just relaxed section 333 a bit. You don't need a full pilot's license which I believe can cost upwards of $10k. Rcgroups posted a great video with three guys discussing it. 

[anonysrom]

6 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

No, they just relaxed section 333 a bit. You don't need a full pilot's license which I believe can cost upwards of $10k. Rcgroups posted a great video with three guys discussing it. 

You're right you don't need a PPL or commerical with a rating...yet. However, you do need a remote airman certificate with UAS rating which is less expensive than a PPL, but still costs some cheddar regardless. Some don't find the cost worth it, like me who will stay with recreational flying for now. All my experienced pilot co-workers complain about it, but they're use to doing small commercial mapping jobs with no regulation or oversight. They also don't like it when the rules change. Got a link to the video? Sounds interesting.

[Hackentosher]

15 hours ago, anonysrom said:

 

It's difficult, expensive and annoying, especially with Part 107 coming in August. Commercial drones are slowly becoming like any other commercial aviation rating. However, if you love flying or drones go ahead and do it, just start small (recreationally and size) and work your way up.

Its a 20 minute Google hangout, but they talk about everything. It's my understanding that you used to need a pilot's license, but the new rules to the 333 exemption no longer require that. 

[anonysrom]

5 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

Its a 20 minute Google hangout, but they talk about everything. It's my understanding that you used to need a pilot's license, but the new rules to the 333 exemption no longer require that. 

 

Thanks! I think I mixed the two up, my bad.

[BuckGup]

Basic photos would be a nice touch 

[Hackentosher]

1 hour ago, SamStrecker said:

Basic photos would be a nice touch 

Of components? Yeah I can manage that. 

[Juggernaught]

With the new regulations coming into effect August 29th I have gone back to my research on starting a new business with drones.  Not sure if this is the correct thread to place this or not, but I am attempting to use it on farmland for crop health and scouting.  So far I have some interest from various farmers, but they are not really sure it will be much better than Satellite Imagery that they can get for near free.  

 

Seeing if anyone is doing this in their area or have any tips for a new entrepreneur?

 

I will either be flying the precisionhawk Lancaster Mark 5 or the DJI Inspire that they sell (still crunching numbers)

[Hackentosher]

1 hour ago, Juggernaught said:

With the new regulations coming into effect August 29th I have gone back to my research on starting a new business with drones.  Not sure if this is the correct thread to place this or not, but I am attempting to use it on farmland for crop health and scouting.  So far I have some interest from various farmers, but they are not really sure it will be much better than Satellite Imagery that they can get for near free.  

 

Seeing if anyone is doing this in their area or have any tips for a new entrepreneur?

 

I will either be flying the precisionhawk Lancaster Mark 5 or the DJI Inspire that they sell (still crunching numbers)

Watch that video podcast I posted, hopefully that will help clear up the rules. 

 

You may want to consider building a quad or tri for that kind of work. Something that can be faster, but still fly for a long time. If it's big enough, you can wire two large batteries together for double the capacity and potentially an hour of flight time. If not, I think I would choose the inspire. 

[Juggernaught]

48 minutes ago, Hackentosher said:

Watch that video podcast I posted, hopefully that will help clear up the rules. 

 

You may want to consider building a quad or tri for that kind of work. Something that can be faster, but still fly for a long time. If it's big enough, you can wire two large batteries together for double the capacity and potentially an hour of flight time. If not, I think I would choose the inspire. 

Never thought about building my own, but since I am about to spend about $8,500 on a pre-built that includes multi spectral sensor, RGB, software packages, hard case, controller, unit and five batteries....should look into what I could do with that.

[Hackentosher]

24 minutes ago, Juggernaught said:

Never thought about building my own, but since I am about to spend about $8,500 on a pre-built that includes multi spectral sensor, RGB, software packages, hard case, controller, unit and five batteries....should look into what I could do with that.

God damn, this is a serious operation. With all that gear you might want to consider a her like a DJI spreading wings. 

[Juggernaught]

18 minutes ago, Hackentosher said:

God damn, this is a serious operation. With all that gear you might want to consider a her like a DJI spreading wings. 

The company that I am looking at purchasing from has the matrice 100 and matrice 600 available.  Not sure on their price points, but probably 2k more than the inspire package is my guesstimate.  Which is much cheaper than the $17,500 fixed wing lancaster.  Downside to quads are the time on station to area covered being approximately 150-175 acres/ 30 minutes while the lancaster is around 300-350 acres in about 40 minutes.

[Hackentosher]

22 hours ago, Juggernaught said:

Never thought about building my own, but since I am about to spend about $8,500 on a pre-built that includes multi spectral sensor, RGB, software packages, hard case, controller, unit and five batteries....should look into what I could do with that.

Hmm, maybe the inspire is the right choice, economically. You can spend the cash you saved on batteries, or try to ghetto rig something together that will use normal batteries but double the capacity. 

[Juggernaught]

1 hour ago, Hackentosher said:

Hmm, maybe the inspire is the right choice, economically. You can spend the cash you saved on batteries, or try to ghetto rig something together that will use normal batteries but double the capacity. 

Yeah leaning that way, I just got off the phone with UAS America and went over the specs of the Eagle.  Quite impressive, but the cost is extraordinary (23k for just the drone) in relations to DJI.  What was definitely better was the two battery system with 45-50 minute flight time in calm winds with 6lb payload.

 

I need to find out the true flight time of the inspire in nominal winds (5-10mph) with a multi spec camera attached.

 

 

[Hackentosher]

4 minutes ago, Juggernaught said:

I need to find out the true flight time of the inspire in nominal winds (5-10mph) with a multi spec camera attached.

 

 

The default camera is 4k, it should be fine. Flitetest did a review of the inspire using the default camera. Although there is a mirrorless system with a slightly better gimbal.  It also allows you to use a different lense, but I don't think you get much more resolution. 

[Hackentosher]

Found a great example of soldering pins for those that don't know how. This quick clip isn't a flight controller, but it's the same exact process. https://www.instagram.com/p/BLtgsc-AFA-/